[1] Nicoline Magdalene Roll was born at Molde in Møre og Romsdal, Norway.

She was the daughter of stipendiary magistrate and later member of parliament and minister Ferdinand Nicolai Roll.

The family moved to Kristiania (now Oslo) and for a period of time resided in Stockholm while her father served as the Minister of Justice and Supreme Court Attorney.

Among her later novels are Det svake kjøn (1915) and Den som henger i en tråd (1935).

[3][5] In Den som henger i en tråd ("Those Hanging by a Thread"), the protagonist "Karen Anna" (or "Karna" for short) works as a seamstress in a clothing factory.